When I review a movie, I either really like it or I really don’t. That’s why I don’t review many movies. Most movies or videos that I view fall somewhere in between. So if they are only an “OK” movie, I can’t find the words to express it and I can’t recommend or not recommend it to a friend.

There are two outside influences that help decide whether a movie viewer really likes a movie or not. These are human variants that really can’t always be gauged before watching a movie. (1) One is the mood you’re in when you sit down to watch it. It takes a really great comedy to make you laugh when you’re in a downer mood. Likewise it takes a really great movie to bring you down or sad when you enter the theater feeling great. (2) And two is the reaction of the people around you. I have attended movies where people are crying or laughing and I feel like I’m missing something profound. Or maybe they are cheering a particularly violent scene and I’m feeling sick.

Other than the two variables above, I know what I like and I like what I know. The movie, “The Breakfast Club” is a movie that is great. No, I didn’t say, “profound.” I said, “Great.” It’s great because it doesn’t matter what your mood is or whom you are with, each person identifies either with one of the characters in the movie, or identifies with the feelings expressed by the characters. Anyone that has ever been a teenager is moved by it; anyone that knows a teenager, wants them to see it; anyone that is a teenager watches it and finally realizes that the angst they feel is “normal.”

Until recently I didn’t know that the director of this movie and one of my other all time favorites, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was the same director. Some people study film and in this educational study know and recognize directors and producers and visual effects. I can’t analyze this movie in that respect, but I can tell you that I must like this director. I would also like to recommend another of my favorite movies that truly is both a character study and which produces a gamut of emotions, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” with Jack Nicholson. Any of these movies are the kind that seeing “once” is NOT often enough. Each time I watch one of these “Play It Again, Sam” kind of movies I either find a new laugh or a new insight.

This review is part of a write-off hosted by bwyckoff1. Thanks for letting me participate. It has been fun! This write-off includes movies that we all enjoy watching over and over. Thus, “Play It Again Sam” is the name of the write-off. Other participants include:

BWYCKOFF1
CHRIS JARMICK
KYALIEN
NAPHTALIA
MTBAT
PRETTYINPINK
PREPOIA
WILLTHING

A rather abbreviated version of this movie:

Five high school students meet on Saturday morning at their local high school to serve a detention for acts committed during the week. These acts are as varied as the people committing them. One of the greatest satisfactions gained from watching this movie is seeing each person slowly revealing themselves through their sharing of their transgression and reason for being at the “Breakfast Club.”

The five start out being antagonistic toward each other. How can a “homecoming queen” stereotype like Claire (played by Molly Ringwald); a jock like Andrew (played by Emilio Estevez); a nerd like Brian (Anthony Michael Hall); Alison, a grunge dressed loner (played by Ally Sheehy); and finally Judd Nelson as Bender (a troublemaker and greaser-type teen ever “connect”? That is the plot of the Breakfast Club. I think that it is remarkable that after all this time, the stereotyping of teens holds remarkably apt. They may be called different terms of stereotypes but the characterizations and realities faced by teens that are stereotyped is exactly the same.

The characters portrayed in this movie are as fresh today as when they were written. The strength of this movie is recognizing a part of the characterization in ourselves and identifying with it. The characterization is what makes this movie a “great” rather than a “good” movie. Whatever age you are, you can feel the painful experiences; the parental expectations and pressures (or lack of parental involvement at all) as strongly as these young people present them to you.

The greatest weakness of the movie is the over dramatization by the supporting cast. The sarcastic, burned out principal (in charge of the Club) is played by Paul Gleason. I think that I have met this man but I also think that he played it heavy because he wasn’t just a burned out principal but represented “the establishment.” And the other stereotype character was the “kid helpful custodian.” On the side of the kids and anti-establishment himself. These two characters, while overplaying their parts, did inject some needed comic relief in a somewhat somber self-examination of personalities and painfully reminisced memories of life as a teen.

The ending does find that the five kids that were so different, are really so alike. This sub-theme is important and usually isn’t discovered by viewers until the third of fourth viewing. It’s important for teens to know that they aren’t alone and that though their problems seem unique, and they feel differently than the teens around them, that there are many ways that they are also uniquely alike. The “You’re different and unique but the same” theme can help many teens feel more normal and make them better able to accept themselves for who they are easier.

Some of the problems that each unique teen faces equally, but in different ways and degrees, are tough issues such as suicide, self-mutilation, loneliness and alienation, peer pressure, parental pressures, and child abuse (both physical and mental.) It is therapeutic for the teens in the story to share these experiences with each other and it is therapeutic for the viewer to gain insight to these issues.

Each character in the story finds a way to become a better self. Each character in the story finds ways to accept themselves. And most important, each character grows in the way they connect to and understand others around them. Teenagers are very judgmental about themselves and others. This movie lets them see into the very people that they often judge.

The ending is perhaps a bit too pat for me to say this was a “brilliant” movie. Telling the ending here will not destroy your enjoyment of watching the movie for the first time. That’s because the enjoyment of the movie and the plot really happens while the characters are inside the Breakfast Club, from 8:00 am to 1:00 PM, not when they are outside the school catching their rides home. Typically “happy ever after” happens on the sidewalk as they prepare to leave. The beauty queen and the greaser exchange a kiss and she gives him a symbol of her appreciation, a diamond ear ring for him to wear. The grunge looking girl has had a makeover and the jock seems a bit smitten with her. The nerdy guy sits a little straighter as he sits down next to his father in the car. It leaves questions such as, “Why did the grunge girl have to change her “outward” appearance to gain acceptance?” Why does Clair, the homecoming queen, still need an outward sign to show the new understanding and connection gained during the episode?”

The letter that is to be written in the form of an apology by each of them for their transgression ends up being written by Brian (who is really smart but is there for failing a shop project). In part he states on behalf of the “Club”:

“We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a Saturday in detention for what you said we did wrong. We also think that it’s crazy that you expect us to write you an essay telling you who we think we are. You will continue to see us the way you do in the simplest terms and most convenient definition (stereotype). But together we found that we, each of us, is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”

So, what is the main theme of the movie? Part of it is expressed in the music selection of the main song, “Don’t Forget About Me.” Mainly, it is a movie about overcoming the fear of showing and being vulnerable to ourselves and to others. The teen years are the most vulnerable years throughout our lives. We can be hurt and scarred by those around us and by our self-image of ourselves at that age. This movie does a wonderful job of letting us remember, and of letting teens know that being vulnerable often leads to self-examination and most importantly to growth as a person.







Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older